


Changing of the Guard

by pherryt



Series: Cosmic Forces [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 13.05 coda, Billie ships it, mention of Dean and Dean's depression, this is li's fault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 19:58:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12689202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: Being Death isn't all it's cracked up to be. Especially when you can't even torment your (least) favorite Winchester because he's too depressed to care. Not to mention that the new gig has come with a different set of rules than Billie was used to.What next?





	Changing of the Guard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [li_izumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/li_izumi/gifts).



> This is all Li's fault
> 
> we were talking about the two Deaths and Billies return (we were super happy about that) and that we liked both of them, and that there are some people (such as my husband) who have a preference. Next thing I know, we were both saying "Why not both?" and I thought of Lay Me Down and next thing I knew, i had this storie and a series title. I have no idea at this time if i'll have more. we'll see.

Billie escorted Dean back to his body and released the ward against him. She may know how important the Winchesters are now, but she didn’t have to like it, and it didn’t mean she couldn’t mess with the boy’s head.

Sadly, the current state he was in, messing with his head wasn’t all that fun or satisfying.

That would be fixed soon, though. She smiled at the thought of the upcoming reunion. That’d be sure to light a fire under Dean’s ass. He needed to get back in the game, and that was one hell of a way to go about it.

The self-sacrificing idiot better not screw it up.

She went back to her reading room, set smack dab in the middle of Dean and Sam’s histories – among things that had already come to pass and all their plentitude of potential futures. So many more than the average human got. The Winchesters had an entire wing of the realm dedicated to them.

It only made sense to set up her office there to keep a close eye on things.

When she got there, she found her predecessor sitting calmly at her desk.

“You! How long have you been lurking about?” Billie said calmly, placing her Scythe against the wall. It was new, all shiny and elegant and she couldn’t help but admire it, despite her lack of desire to run all of Death’s domain. “Come to finally take back your job? Because, no offense, but I don’t want it.”

“No, no. I’m just checking in. Making sure you haven’t done anything  _rash_.” Death leaned forward, steepling his hands together, elbows braced on the desk. If he had any other name than that, it had been lost to antiquity. None of the other Reapers – not even the oldest still left among them – knew much about him except that he’d been old before they had come into existence.

It was a strange thing, and Billie sometimes wondered what that meant, exactly. But she knew he’d never tell her, even if she was the new Death.

“You mean reaping a Winchester?” Billie rolled her eyes and gestured around her. “Much as I would have loved to take Dean or Sam once and for all after cheating Death all these years, it has been hammered home quite well how… _ill advised_ that would be for the world – the very  _cosmos_.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” Death said with a slow, graceful nod of his head.

Billie fiddled with the large ring on her finger as they stared at each other silently for a few long moments. Death’s stare was unnerving, even for other Reapers. Billie couldn’t quite take it anymore.

“Are you sure you don’t want your job back?”

“Oh, no. I’m on vacation. I rather think I deserve it, don’t you? I can’t recall the last time I had one,” Death said with perfect nonchalance.

“But when you return, you’ll take back the office?” She pressed.

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I haven’t decided yet.”

“Why me?” Billie finally demanded, the question having been burning on her tongue ever since she’d woken up and learned of her promotion. She’d never thought she’d have the chance to ask it. She’d sincerely thought Death was dead.

“Why not?” Death stood and clasped his hands behind his back as he slowly paced about the room. “The Winchesters need a…guiding hand. And an ally – though behind the scenes, of course. We mustn’t look too eager, after all. Ruins the whole mystique of the office if we come every time they call, giving them whatever they want for nothing. They need to work for it, or they’ll grow spoiled. You’re good at your job. Many of my reapers are, naturally, but you’re one of the best. Best of all, they already know you. They have a…grudging respect for you, well earned, of course. And you won’t take any of their crap.” He turned back to face her, coming to a halt. “So, why  _not_ you?”

“I fear you may be placing too much faith on my shoulders, sir,” Billie said quietly, his words rattling around her head as she took them apart piece by piece, trying to make sure there were no hidden messages. Death was known for often speaking somewhat obliquely and then getting rather put out when what he had said was ignored or misunderstood.

The weight of his disappointment was a near solid thing. It was almost too much to bear, even for a Reaper. How mortals such as Dean Winchester had managed to withstand it would forever be a mystery to her. What stuff must the Winchesters be cast from to be able to stand toe to toe with beings so much further above them as they had done on so many occasions?

Why did they seem to be at the crux of so many important events, the lynch pin of choices that could hold the house of cards together or send it toppling in ruins?

“I think you do not place enough faith in yourself. I would not have chosen you, if I did not think you capable, Billie, I assure you.” Death resumed his slow, measured walk, occasionally pausing to tap a book with a small smile and a chuckle.

“If I may ask, I thought you were dead. We all did. Since it is now obvious that you’re not, I can’t help but wonder - where have you been this whole time?” the question blurted out nearly as bluntly as the previous had, as it would from a Winchester, and she winced at her own words, but the burning curiosity – the same _need to know_ that had had her talking to Dean about the rift between the worlds – would not let it lie.

“Home.” The word was short, curt. Something curled around it that left Billie unsettled and confused. It didn’t make any sense. If Death had been here in his realm, someone would have known it.

Wouldn’t they?

“So, you’re saying that you’ve been here all along?” Billie asked suspiciously.

“Not in the way that you think, no.” Death said nothing more.

Billie sighed. Death would, of course, keep his secrets. He always did. She shouldn’t be surprised. On to the next question, she supposed. “Sir, did you know that Dean would try to kill you?”

“Of course I knew. How could I not? Dean Winchester’s self-preservation and sense of duty is a powerful one –“ he paused both in speaking and his movement and inclined his head slightly. “Normally, anyway.” He resumed his pacing among the stacks, Billie following him respectfully a few steps behind. “And with the influence of the Mark, there was no way he wouldn’t have tried to do _something._ Luckily for me, not even my own Scythe can kill me. I just…allowed him to think he had. You don’t _really_ think I would have simply handed over a weapon that could potentially kill me, did you?”

“Of course not, sir,” Billie answered slowly. He was right. She should have known better. The knowledge that he’d just given her, however, had blown her mind. Could Death even die? What was Death? What did her promotion mean in the terms of her own mortality? Could she be killed? Obviously not with a simple angel blade, as Castiel had already failed there. Could her Scythe kill her? Or his? Was her Scythe actually his, reshaped by her will? The questions whirled through her mind.

Death turned the corner and disappeared from sight as she considered these questions. She turned the corner after him and opened her mouth to speak – only to stop as she stared at the emptiness before her.

Death was gone.

And Billie was – if anything – more confused than she had been already.


End file.
